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"FacebookPinterest\n\nThis story was written under the influence of caffeine in numerous forms, as well as Nawgan&amp;amp;#xAE;, a new &amp;quot;refreshing beverage&amp;quot; designed by a brain scientist to promote concentration, and\u2014once or twice\u2014a pharmaceutical concocted for narcoleptics that comes in handy when you have to be coherent even on days when your 2-year-old is clamoring at 4 a.m. for milk and &amp;quot;\u2019artoons!&amp;quot;\n\n Whether your problem is an ornery toddler or an overly boozy night, every honest man in America who isn\u2019t Tony Robbins knows the feeling of losing steam until he is an Internet-trolling zombie by 3 p.m. The secret to having more energy isn\u2019t just a matter of righting those wrongs. It\u2019s a mix of proper sleep, better diet, and managing\u2014but not eliminating\u2014stress. What follows is a day in the life of your energy.\n\n\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\n Before you take that bite, remember: Nothing is as\n\ncrash-inducing as processed carbs.\n\nMorning\n\n A few ground rules for food, starting with breakfast.\n\n First things first: Pacing your caloric intake is the best way to maintain energy &amp;quot;so that you don\u2019t have to overeat or undereat, and the body has the amount of energy it needs,&amp;quot; says Susan Roberts, the senior scientist at the Energy Metabolism Lab at Tufts University. Roberts\u2019s job is to obsess over food and diet and how these things relate to health. Her basic message: Find a way to avoid hunger. Which is to say: Don\u2019t eat crap. &amp;quot;If you eat soda and Twinkies, you will get hungrier,&amp;quot; Roberts says. That\u2019s because these foods are engineered to make us crave them, and they\u2019re composed of highly processed sugars that are easily burned up, resulting in the famous crash any afternoon cookie-snacker knows all too well.\n\n Much of what Roberts encourages is the message we\u2019re hearing all over the media, from authors and farmers and chefs and guys in fedoras riding Big Wheels around Brooklyn: Eat whole foods whenever possible. And yet, Roberts says, &amp;quot;something like 85 percent of all food we eat has gone through a food manufacturer. We\u2019ve all been trained to eat processed foods. Developing a liking for whole foods overnight is difficult; you have to retrain your brain.&amp;quot;\n\n The Shortcut:\n\n Can\u2019t I just take a pill?\n\n We know what to eat. When should we eat it? Is breakfast really the most -important meal of the day? &amp;quot;A whole bunch of studies show that people who eat breakfast do better managing their weight than people who skip it,&amp;quot; Roberts says. &amp;quot;Salad-bar people, breakfast-skippers\u2014by 3 p.m., their bodies are ravenous. The body is craving sugar and calories; you\u2019re in starvation mode, essentially.&amp;quot; And to remedy that, the body is drawn to foods that most readily resupply calories. It\u2019ll lure you toward foods built from the toxic stew of refined carbs and fat\u2014foods that are engineered to be calorically dense. &amp;quot;Your energy level over the day isn\u2019t just total nutritional content,&amp;quot; Roberts says. &amp;quot;It\u2019s about calories, and pushing some of them earlier in the day is a good way to maintain energy levels.&amp;quot;\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\n Power Players: George Lois\n\n One of the most     productive ad men    of all time\n\n&amp;quot;Energy begets   energy. If you\u2019re   dragging, start   moving.\n\nGet up   and get active.   Before you   know it, you\u2019re   hustling.\n\n You\u2019re   excited.&amp;quot;\n\n6:30 a.m.\n\nYou are a morning person. *The earlier you wake up, the higher your levels of cortisol, better known as the stress hormone. This chemical can raise focus and productivity\u2014especially if you learn how to harness it. (See &amp;quot;Embrace Anxiety.&amp;quot;)\n\n7:30 a.m.\n\nLet the sunshine in. *Linger in the driveway as you pick up the newspaper, or drink your coffee in the yard. Being out in the sun (or at least in daylight) helps signal the brain to cut off the production of melatonin, the chemical that makes us drowsy.\n\n10 a.m.\n\nGo time. \n\n Ignore the e-mail; postpone your website grazing. That dude enthusiastically retelling the story of his &amp;quot;amazing night&amp;quot;? Kick him out of your office. Your natural circadian rhythms and the boost of energy from a solid breakfast (not McGriddles) make this one of your most productive hours, so it\u2019s an excellent time to actually, you know, work.\n\n10:30 a.m.\n\nCaffeine maintenance. *Here\u2019s the thing: Coffee is fine. Even sleep experts drink it. But it\u2019s a stimulant that is best used in moderation, so any nutritionist you ask will tell you to keep it reasonable. Go with smaller cups\u2014four to six ounces each\u2014and space them out across the day, like the Europeans do with espresso.FacebookPinterest\n\nAll Day\n\n Eat like a much smaller mammal.\n\n Roberts recommends three small meals and two snacks\u2014&amp;quot;but small snacks.&amp;quot; The meals should serve as the three points during a day &amp;quot;when your tummy is full and you\u2019re feeling satisfied. That\u2019s important; we\u2019re hardwired to feel full.&amp;quot; The purpose of the snacks, she says, is to curb cravings\u2014not to fill you up but to tide you over. An apple, for instance, works well. Or cheese sticks, because protein is more filling.\n\n As for what not to eat: &amp;quot;The ideal diet is one that gets rid of unsatisfying stuff,&amp;quot; Roberts says. Sugar is obvious. &amp;quot;But one of the worst things would be white carbohydrates,&amp;quot; she says, such as white bread and rice. &amp;quot;Sugar is hunger-promoting, but white carbs are less good for all kinds of reasons.&amp;quot; They\u2019re less healthy, have fewer vitamins and minerals, and worst of all, encourage cravings. Wheat bread doesn\u2019t actually have less sugar\u2014it\u2019s a wash on the glycemic index\u2014but it has &amp;quot;a whole lot more fiber,&amp;quot; and that is the difference maker. &amp;quot;In the minute of that meal, it might not matter. But fiber has long-term benefits,&amp;quot; she says.\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\n Power Players: Tony Schwartz\n\n Consultant, CEO of the Energy Project\n\n&amp;quot;Humans can\u2019t operate nonstop like computers. We\u2019re\n\n designed to pulse between activities. Work in ninety-\n\nminute bursts.You\u2019ll get more done in less time.&amp;quot;\n\n Fiber also explains why it\u2019s so much better to get sugars from fruit, as opposed to sweets, and why it\u2019s always better to actually eat the fruit instead of getting it blended down into a smoothie. The latter is far superior to a Snickers, obviously, but eating the fruit whole makes the body work harder to break down the food and take advantage of the calories. &amp;quot;An apple is bulky. It has textural constraints,&amp;quot; Roberts explains, in the way only a scientist can. &amp;quot;The lumps of apple that arrive in your stomach with pieces of skin [on them] have cells that have to be broken down. Fruit itself has barriers to instant use.&amp;quot; By making your body labor to digest the fiber, the energy is more slowly portioned out.\n\n12:30 p.m.\n\nThe things that look best are the worst for you. \n\n Sorry, but if you crave it, it\u2019s probably bad. If you actually want to be conscious after lunch, try a grilled-chicken sandwich and a spinach salad (which is loaded with fatigue-fighting iron). You can never go wrong with fish (unless it\u2019s deep-fried and served as sticks) or a turkey chili that\u2019s thick with beans, which provide a slow drip of fuel over the course of an afternoon, thanks to a healthy balance of protein and carbohydrates.\n\nThe Workday\n\n Embrace anxiety.\n\n That visceral, almost hyper feeling you get during periods of extreme focus and productivity? That\u2019s anxiety. And according to T. Byram Karasu, psychiatrist in chief at Montefiore Medical Center and the go-to headshrinker for CEOs in New York City, it\u2019s good for you. Karasu tries to help his patients achieve a &amp;quot;high-adrenaline, low-endorphin&amp;quot; state that, he says, &amp;quot;is the opposite of what people suggest you do in life to be happy and serene.&amp;quot; Such a blissed-out state &amp;quot;takes away the productive high-power energy&amp;quot; that many of us associate with extreme focus and mental energy. The idea of encouraging anxiety is more than a little counterintuitive\u2014and surely quite troubling to neurotics\u2014but it makes sense if you think about it. Have you ever felt almost tingly when working at a high level? The danger, Karasu warns, is that if this is the case, you are teetering very close to a physiological threshold. &amp;quot;At a certain level it becomes paralyzing,&amp;quot; he says, and the body goes into anxiety overload\u2014cortisol, the stress hormone, is released in massive quantities and we enter the fight-or-ight state. At this point, anxiety becomes fear and all systems basically shut down; your computer freezes up.\n\n The extreme focus that Karasu teaches only works with people who have a high tolerance for this stimulus and are able to capitalize on the adrenaline being pumped through the body: &amp;quot;No one without high tolerance to anxiety can succeed at a high level.&amp;quot;\n\n1 p.m.\n\n Dude, drink. \n\n Dehydration is one of the leading causes of afternoon doldrums\u2014or of shitty feelings anytime\u2014because it decreases blood ow and, therefore, oxygen to the brain. Technically you should be hydrating throughout the day\u2014thirteen cups a day for an average guy. The upside of all that water is you\u2019ll have to get up and move to the restroom more often, and moving is good.\n\n2 p.m.\n\nRise, young soldier. *Any amount of aerobic ercise can improve concentration by activating brain chemicals like dopamine. There\u2019s an increasingly popular school of thought that we\u2019re only truly effective in bursts and that office workers should be encouraged to take breaks, even if that means leaving the building to go to the gym for a workout. If you only have a half hour, try interval training. Recent studies have shown that extremely intense short-burst ercise (even ten minutes\u2019 worth) can be as effective as a long run\u2014you get the same health benefits and the endorphin high.\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\n Power Players: Jim Cramer\n\n Screams for five hours a day on CNBC\n\n&amp;quot;I CAN\u2019T STAY ASLEEP. I wake up revved and work out\n\n intensely for an hour. Don\u2019t be an idiot. Get more sleep than\n\n I do.&amp;quot;\n\n3 p.m.\n\n NASA says: Nap! \n\n The average circadian rhythm hits a low at two points in the day: 3 a.m. and 3 p.m. Hence, the afternoon slump. If you have a door or your boss is a progressive type, consider a rest. Even short naps are proven to fight fatigue and increase focus. A NASA study of long-haul airline pilots showed that those who napped for at least twenty-six minutes improved their reaction time by 16 percent, while those who didn\u2019t had a 34 percent deterioration.\n\n4:30 p.m.\n\nEat an apple. *\n\n5 to 6 p.m.\n\n If you didn\u2019t do it earlier, work out now. \n\n Your body temperature typically peaks in the early evening, so your muscles are literally at their warmest now. And according to Karasu, &amp;quot;the machine has to be well maintained.&amp;quot; For this, he insists on regular intense ercise, which he defines as the ability to run 6.7 miles per hour for twenty minutes.\n\n6 p.m.\n\nA beer or two is fine, but more and your sleep is screwed. \n\n Orfeu Buxton, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, has an interesting explanation for why chronic insomniacs and burners of both candle ends are often grumpy and short-tempered. It isn\u2019t just that they\u2019re tired and thus irritable. Rather, the irritation comes from not experiencing enough REM sleep (or dream sleep), a brain function that helps a person &amp;quot;deal with emotions that come up during the day. In absence of sleep, that doesn\u2019t occur.&amp;quot; And the result, he says, is a kind of &amp;quot;post-traumatic stress disorder&amp;quot; that can adversely affect how you interact with others. One of the main disrupters of REM sleep? Too much alcohol, which can also disrupt slow-wave sleep that precedes REM sleep. More than half the entire day\u2019s growth hormone is released during the slow-wave period, and &amp;quot;that accelerates aging if you don\u2019t get it.&amp;quot; And, of course, you\u2019ll feel generally more sluggish.\n\nPost-work\n\n &amp;quot;Stress-train&amp;quot; your brain.\n\n You remember how we told you anxiety can be a good thing? Well, you should also remember that it only works if you have a high tolerance for it. Fortunately, you can raise your anxiety threshold. Coaches of top athletes, like Andy Walshe, an Aussie-born performance expert at Red Bull, are starting to use &amp;quot;stress-training&amp;quot; to do just this. Walshe says he\u2019s lately been taking athletes way out of their comfort zones\u2014by, say, making golfers do surf-survival school (really)\u2014to teach them how to elevate their tolerance to stress and capitalize on the adrenaline, rather than letting it blow past the threshold into anxiety. You don\u2019t want to be in a situation where you\u2019re uncomfortable all the time, but you need to push yourself out to the edge a couple of times to see how much you can handle. One of the best ways to do this, Walshe says, is trying something you\u2019re afraid of. &amp;quot;The number one fear of Westerners, worse than death, is public speaking,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;It builds anxiety and heart rate.&amp;quot;\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\n If you learn to channel it, mild anxiety is a surefire energy\n\n source.\n\n The primal explanation for all this, explains Dean MacKinnon, M.D., an associate professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, is that the inner regions of the brain are waiting to kick in and assist us by providing jolts of the neurotransmitters adrenaline and norepinephrine. In caveman times, the idea was to help us, say, chase and catch prey or recognize and run from an angry mammoth. Today, we can understand these things in the cool, detached verbiage of science. When fight-or-ight happens, we\u2019re shifting from &amp;quot;tonic arousal&amp;quot; to &amp;quot;phasic arousal,&amp;quot; and the more you\u2019re in the latter state, the more &amp;quot;alert&amp;quot; you\u2019ll feel, MacKinnon explains.\n\n7 p.m.\n\nEat light\u2014also, early. \n\n Dinner should be small and at least three hours prior to sleep. Your body needs that much time to process solids and avoid acid reux. Load up on greens and lean proteins.\n\n 10 p.m.\n\nWhat about nooky? \n\n Karasu, the energy guru, is firm on this: &amp;quot;Indulging in sexuality\u2026will lower testosterone and create laziness in the body.&amp;quot; Wait\u2014what? &amp;quot;Once or twice a week is okay,&amp;quot; but &amp;quot;no promiscuity.&amp;quot; If you\u2019re thinking that such an ascetic regimen is likely not well received by his roster of clients\u2014CEOs, celebrities, Masters of the Universe\u2014you\u2019re right. &amp;quot;They say, \u2019Fuck you!\u2019&amp;quot; Karasu says, and laughs as only a man who charges $1,000 per hour can. &amp;quot;They usually come around, by the way.&amp;quot;\n\nNight\n\n You\u2019re sleeping wrong.\n\n If someone were to ask you how much sleep is enough, chances are you\u2019d answer, &amp;quot;Eight hours.&amp;quot; That response has always been the numerical equivalent of a good night\u2019s sleep. But Buxton, the Harvard sleep expert, thinks we need to change the conversation. There\u2019s only one rule that will ensure that you\u2019ve slept enough to fully function: You need to be able to wake up under your own power and feel rested. &amp;quot;If you can get up at the same time each day without an alarm clock and it\u2019s pleasant\u2014that\u2019s important\u2014then you\u2019re getting enough sleep,&amp;quot; he says. Every person will need to tinker with bedtimes to arrive at the right number of hours, and it varies by person (see Jim Cramer, above), but it\u2019s somewhere between seven and nine hours. That number, it turns out, is genetically ifluenced and is &amp;quot;not likely to change dramatically unless you have an illness or unusual pain, anxiety, or stress.&amp;quot; (Buxton\u2019s is seven hours forty-five minutes.)\n\n Sleep isn\u2019t just important because a lack of it causes us to feel drowsy, lethargic, and run-down. &amp;quot;It\u2019s during sleep that the body recovers,&amp;quot; Buxton says, and the payoff of that can be increased mental and physical energy. A sleep-deprived brain will be weak in the areas of &amp;quot;ecutive function&amp;quot;\u2014creativity and decision-making\u2014and while you can still learn &amp;quot;explicit things,&amp;quot; Buxton explains, you will not be able to experience as many &amp;quot;implicit learning moments.&amp;quot; These are the aha! moments when &amp;quot;there\u2019s a pattern that\u2019s not completely obvious and then suddenly you see it.&amp;quot; What\u2019s more, sleep debt can prevent the brain from converting short-term memories to long-term memories and, as your grandmother said, really does elevate your risk of getting sick. Buxton cites &amp;quot;some very elegant studies where they make people sniff rhinovirus&amp;quot; that showed that people who sleep less are far more likely to develop colds. So, final lesson: Sleep more, which really means go to bed earlier.\n\nJosh Dean wrote about killer desk jobs in the October 2011 issue of GQ."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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